Years ago when I was still a young woman in my childbearing years, I would hear women complaining about menopausal hot flushes (or hot flashes, depending on where you live). They made them sound just miserable and I thought, "What's the big deal? You feel hot for a minute. So what?"

In the throes of a wild drinking evening, you become the hero of your own depraved drama. Shirts are trifling details. A human in the grip of a fully realised pub crawl is on an expedition into the dark unknown.

The numbers are often quoted, but still remain staggering. The United Nations predicts that today's global population of 7 billion is going to rise to roughly 9 billion by 2050. In 2010, 3.6 billion people lived in cities. Fast forward forty years, and this will rise to 6.3 billion, 70% of the world's population.

It's never too late to travel, never too late in your life and never too late in the year. With the end of summer and weather cooling off, many travellers are trying to take advantage of one last trip before it gets too cold. I totally understand. From my experience, I believe that a great choice for that last trip before it gets too cold is going to a festival.

Botecos are about good food, good beer and good company. We drink in pubs in the UK, they hang out in Botecos in Brazil. Here's BarChick's pick of the best of 'em... And for all things Rio, there's a whole boozy city guide.

Award-winning drinks writer Pete Brown has been demonstrating how sound influences flavour with his beer and music pairing events. He picks a variety of different brews and lets the audience test them out (all in the name of science, of course) whilst listening to different genres of music.

It was great to be back in Australia and to experience that good old fashioned Aussie warmth - both from the sun and the people. 80 people booked for our pop up supper club and we raised a substantial amount of money for the apprentice programme.

Drinks Tube will have it all - from showing you how to make amazing cocktails at home to discovering fantastic beers from around the world, or explaining everything you've always wanted to know about the world of wine. But it's not all about alcohol - there'll be soft drinks like coffee and juice too!

To achieve a sustainable change in attitude towards alcohol consumption, brewers need to also address this challenge by using their brands to promote moderate drinking behaviour - consumers relate to brands and are often fiercely loyal to them, so that is where we need to take this battle.

We pride ourselves on being WELL in touch with the hard-working common man and the kind of things they like. That's what our Beer'N'Bingo bullsh**, er, I mean bonus, was all about. But wait - that was a proper BIG-HITTER of an idea, a 'Gove' as we call them...so we've come up with some MORE 'triffic' proposals that hard-working, tax-paying poor-people are going to LOVE!!

People go to the States for all kinds of reasons - to take a road trip, visit great cities like New York, see the fall colours, take the kids to Disneyland or hang out in Hollywood. It's not often that food is given as a reason for going, but because of its size and diversity, the USA is one of the best countries in which to enjoy great eating.

I was recently neknominated by a friend. For those of you who have been living on a desert island (that has no internet access) for the past couple of months, Neknominate is an internet-spread drinking game whereby the nominated drinks a pint of alcohol (often beer) and then passes on the nomination to someone else via social media...